Work-Related Teaching and Learning

A guide for teachers and practitioners

Prue Huddleston, Julian Stanley

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781136643996
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

In the current economic climate, it is more important than ever that young people engage with the world of work and gain the knowledge, skills and experience they will need to prepare them for their future careers. This book provides an overarching framework for understanding all the separate parts of the work-related learning curriculum and constructs a research-based pedagogy with practical steps for students, teachers and practitioners.

Work-Related Teaching and Learning deepens our understanding of work-related learning and provides an overview of the programmes and recent initiatives designed to make learning more relevant and better connected to work. Drawing on contemporary research and innovative practice, it offers guidance to support teachers and practitioners in the delivery of the work-related learning curriculum.

Covering all aspects of word-related learning from enterprise education and economic well-being to careers education, work experience and the diplomas, features include:

• 
  
  

• An overarching conceptualisation of work-related learning

• 
  
  

• An exploration of the benefits of work-related learning

• 
  
  

• An examination of the key issues and challenges faced

• 
  
  

• A detailed look at how teaching and learning activities have been used in various contexts and with what effects

• 
  
  

• An assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of different curriculum models

• 
  
  

• Case studies and examples of good practice

• 
  
  

• Discussion questions for reflective practice

This book is essential reading for current teachers and practitioners involved in work-related learning, as well as students and trainee teachers who wish to improve or develop their practice in the light of recent initiatives.

Part I

CHAPTER

1

What is work-related
learning?

Julian Stanley

The concept of work-related learning

Work-related learning is a complex educational phenomenon. It is at once a set of educational missions (e.g. careers education), a range of activities (work experience), a collection of topics (understanding credit and work) and a repertoire of teaching and learning styles. There is currently a defined statutory educational requirement at Key Stage 4 for work-related learning and for careers education (QCA 2003) and there are non-statutory programmes of work for Economic Wellbeing and Financial Capability at Key Stages 3 and 4, which include key work-related learning elements such as careers education and enterprise education.¹ In addition, the government has published extensive guidance on the value, relevance and interpretation of work- related learning for learners from Early Years Foundation Stage through to post-16 (DCSF 2009). Work-related learning is also regarded as a way of delivering other programmes, such as Diplomas or mathematics. At times it is used broadly to refer to any educational programme that has any connection to work, at other times as part of a family of activities; for example, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA)’s Career, Work-Related Learning and Enterprise 11-19 framework refers to ‘career, work-related and enterprise’ education as collectively serving ‘economic wellbeing’ (QCA 2008, p. 2).

For many years, it has been common to distinguish between the process, the matter and the purpose of work-related learning. When work-related learning became statutory at Key Stage 4 in 2004, all of these dimensions were included:

The statutory requirement is for schools to make provision for all students at Key Stage 4 to:

learn through work, by providing opportunities for students to learn from direct experiences of work (for example, through work experience or part-time jobs)

learn about work, by providing opportunities for students to develop knowledge and understanding of work and enterprise (for example, through vocational courses and careers education)

learn for work by developing skills for enterprise and employability (for example, through problem-solving activities, work simulations and mock interviews).

(QCA 2003, p. 2)

This makes it clear that work-related learning should not be defined just in terms of learning outcomes, that is the knowledge, skills and understanding that learners are to acquire. Work-related learning has come to refer to a range of teaching and learning activities, which involve distinctive teaching and learning processes. Another important characteristic of work-related learning is that it is explicitly concerned with teaching and learning in context. A large part of the conventional school curriculum focuses on knowledge and skills which have a general value and truth; for example, scientific, mathematical and historical knowledge, essay writing and reasoning. This kind of knowledge and skill are supposed to possess a general value far greater than any particular use that one might make of them. Work-related learning also claims to provide some general skills and knowledge (e.g. employability), but it is also concerned with learning in relation to particular situations, particular problems and particular organisational or personal objectives (e.g. individual advice and guidance). Another way in which work-related learning differs from the conventional curriculum is that there is a greater emphasis on emotional and practical as opposed to intellectual learning. Obviously, how people feel and act is of importance in work situations so work-related learning will be concerned with emotions and actions as well as facts and theories.

The challenge is to sustain a multi-dimensional and complex understanding of work-related learning. Work-related learning is not just a matter of process; it does claim to support particular learning outcomes. Work-related learning is not just to do with activities and attitudes; it does also address understanding and judgement. Work-related learning does deal with local problems and local knowledge; but it also makes use of and generates more general knowledge. Some writers argue that these kinds of distinctions are based on the mistaken, though venerable, tradition that the most worthwhile knowledge is intellectual (not practical or emotional) and that the priority of education is to transmit intellectual knowledge(Hager and Halliday 2006). For our purposes, it is enough to recognise that work-related learning should not be conceptualised as something other than academic learning; rather it is something which cross-cuts a number of concepts of education - we need to be tolerant of some ambiguity.

Even if we focus on activities (rather than purposes, topics or teaching and learning styles) it is not easy to agree about the scope of work-related learning since it depends on what criteria are being used. If, for example, the key criterion is location then work- related learning might be defined as education that makes use of workplaces as well as classrooms, as for example in work experience or business visits. If, however, a criterion is the involvement of workers or employers then work-related learning will include such activities as mock interviews or mentoring, even if they take place outside the workplace. Alternatively, a learning event may be related to work because its function is derived from a work situation, for example writing a letter of application for a job or calculating a profit - even though the activity is led by a teacher in a conventional classroom.

One way of getting a grasp on the distinctive character of work-related learning is to make a general comparison between learning as it goes on in a classroom, directed by teachers and making use of educational resources, and learning that goes on in the workplace, where workers learn from carrying out their jobs alongside co-workers. Table 1.1 differentiates work-related learning from traditional classroom-based learning and work-based training. The basic idea is that work-related learning offers a middle ground between work-based and classroom-based learning. However, this idea is elaborated on in two ways. First, it is useful to recognise that work-relatedness is a matter of degree. In other words, learning activities can be judged to be more or less work-related, and many activities, such as simulations and case studies, can be regarded as blended. Second, it is helpful to analyse work-relatedness not as a simple, variable quality but as a complex one in which we can distinguish eight different dimensions. For example, a learning task might be given a purpose in relation to a work situation, but it could take place in the classroom. The students might be taught or briefed by a business professional (rather than a teacher) and the students could be asked to carry it out under the time conditions normal in the workplace but with educational resources, such as textbooks, to help them. The content of the learning may be focused narrowly on work processes or work organisations or it may be closely related to subject knowledge such as sociology or business studies. Learning which is strongly work-related in many of the eight dimensions is more work-related than learning whose relationship to work is ‘one dimensional’ or only weakly work-related in a number of dimensions. Many traditional, secondary school maths problems, for example, are about buying and selling, but this is a nominal work-relatedness which is not expected to make any difference to how the calculation is regarded by learners or how they carry it out.

TABLE 1.1 Dimensions and degrees of work-related learning

	‘TRADITIONAL CLASSROOM’ OR ‘FORMAL’ LEARNING	‘WORK-RELATED LEARNING’	‘TRADITIONAL WORK-BASED'OR ‘ INFORMAL’ LEARNING OR TRAINING
Purposes	Educational goals: subject mastery and qualifications	Educational and work purposes	Work goals, e.g. quality outputs, targets, profit
content(knowledge, understanding and skills)	Academic or school subjects	Sociology, business studies and economics plus generic and vocational skills plus attitudes and dispositions relating to work, consumption, economic activity, etc.	Knowledge of organisational and work processes plus relevant technical or scientific knowledge
Environment	Classroom or workshop in school or college	Workplace and school or college (dual system) or hybrid learning/training centre	Workplace
Teachers	School or college teacher	Teachers and workers or hybrids, e.g. employer as teacher	Supervisors and co-workers
Resources	Specialist educational resources, e.g. textbooks	Educational and work resources or specialist hybrid resources, e.g. training kitchen	Work tools and infrastructure
Conditions	E.g. 50-minute lesson with 26 Lessons students controlled by 1 teacher	Lessons and work conditions or hybrids, e.g. ‘collapsed timetable day’	Normal work conditions
Tasks	Educationally designed, e.g. exercises, note taking	Both educational and work tasks or jointly designed tasks, e.g. redesigning a real product outside the work place	Live work tasks
Learning processes	conventional educational, e.g. listening, writing	Both educational and work processes or blended processes, e.g observation, imitation	Routine work processes, e.g. making, selling, discussing work tasks

Table 1.1. reveals that work-related learning possesses some of the characteristics of formal or ‘school’ learning and some of the characteristics of informal or work- based learning. It also shows that work-related learning is characterised by a focus on how the context of learning, in a broad sense, makes a difference to learning. This means that while there may well be knowledge or skills that are acquired through work-related learning, rather as knowledge is acquired within conventional academic learning, work-related learning is also concerned with learning in particular kinds of situation, or with particular people or in relation to certain tasks (Felstead et al. 2005). The table also reveals that there are a considerable variety of ways to design and perform work-related learning because there are different ways in which the connection between work and learning can be made.

The development of work-related learning

It would be possible to write separate histories of how policy makers, experts and teachers have sought to develop the different strands of work-related learning: careers education, work experience, personal financial education, enterprise education and so on. Some of these histories are extraordinary success stories: early experimentation by pioneers with relatively small groups of learners gets copied by other teachers and, critically, gains support from local authorities, educational agencies, central government, third-sector organisations, head teachers and teachers more widely. What starts as an experiment gradually becomes an expectation and ultimately an ...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Work-Related Teaching and Learning
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• List of contributors
• Acknowledgements
• List of abbreviations
• Introduction
• Part I
• Part II
• Index